“What if he finds it can?” huskily demanded Knowles.
“He can’t. I’m sure he can’t. If he builds a reservoir, where could he get enough water to fill it? The watershed above us is too small. He couldn’t 122 impound more than three thousand acre feet of flood waters at the utmost.”
“How about the whole river going to waste, down in Deep Cañon?” queried her father.
“Heavens, Mr. Knowles! How would he ever get a drop of water out of that awful chasm?” exclaimed Ashton. “I looked down into it. The river is thousands of feet down. It must be way below the level of Dry Mesa.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” replied the cowman. “Holes are mighty deceiving.”
“Well, what if it ain’t so deep as the mesa?” argued Gowan, for once half in accord with Ashton. “It shore is deep enough, ain’t it? Even allowing that this man Blake is the biggest engineer in the U.S., how’s he going to pump that water up over the rim of the cañon? The devil himself couldn’t do it.”
“If I am mistaken regarding the depth, that is, if the river really is higher than the mesa,” remarked Ashton, “there is the possibility that it might be tapped by a tunnel through the side of High Mesa. But even if it is possible, it still is quite out of the question. The cost would be prohibitive.”
“You see, Daddy!” exclaimed Isobel. “Lafe knows. He’s an engineer himself.”
“How’s that?” growled her father, frowning heavily at Ashton. “You never told me you’re an engineer.” 123
“I told Miss Chuckie the first day I met her,” explained Ashton. “Ever since then I’ve been so busy trying to be something else––”